HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Jack Reeves is flanked by, at left, sons Cole and, at right, Matt at the Maverick Tuesday. Advertisement

Matt Reeves, 18, who is on his way to the national Colgate Country Showdown in Nashville Jan. 15, will perform with his dad, long-time Pahrump favorite Jack Reeves, in a special Jack Reeves Family Show New Year's Eve at the Maverick.

The Colgate Country Showdown is designed to find promising country music talent and offer a venue to launch their professional music career. The winner of the national competition in Nashville takes home $100,000.

Matt Reeves worked his way up from the local competition in Laughlin in July to the state finals in Prescott, Ariz., in September. That qualified him for the regional Colgate Country Showdown in Coos Bay, Ore., in October. Contestants had seven minutes to perform for the judges, in front of a backup band.

"I don't really know how I advanced but apparently there was something they liked in me. I just got up there and did my stuff, and it turned out I won the thing. I was real fortunate," Matt Reeves said of the Coos Bay contest.

Matt Reeves won an all-expense paid trip to Nasvhille, where he will play with the Charlie McCoy Band as backup. He said it will be televised on the Las Vegas ABC-TV affiliate probably sometime in March or April. The show will be hosted by country-western singer LeAnn Rimes.

Matt Reeves performed the same songs during the competition, his own compositions, "The Ballad of Gypsy Rose" and "Long-Haired, Hot-Blooded, Redneck, Honky-Tonk Cowboy."

"They actually told me to just stick with the same songs that I was doing because every time you pick a new song they make you go through copyright and finding out all the information so you didn't steal it," he said.

Matt Reeves is looking forward to playing with his dad for the special New Year's Eve show. They played together at the Maverick the night before his competition in Prescott, Ariz.

"I always have a good time picking behind my dad. It'll be a fun night, a bunch of people out there that we all love," he said.

Jack Reeves usually played a medley of country-western hits called Nashville Saturday Night during his Pahrump shows.

Matt Reeves said he'll play a few of his own compositions, but it will be his father's show.

Matt Reeves learned the guitar at age 7 and later played with his dad for four years.

"At last count he knew 684 songs by heart. So it's hard to tell what he's going to do. He's doesn't have a song list. He just reads the audience. If they're enjoying what they're hearing, he keeps on doing it," Matt Reeves said.

Bar owner Jan Jensen said it's appropriate that Jack Reeves will perform on New Year's Eve for her new club, which opened back in May. Jack Reeves performed the first New Year's Eve show at her first nightclub in Pahrump, the StageStop, back in the early 1990s.

The Whitehorse Band will start the show at 7 p.m., Jensen said. The Jack Reeves Family Show starts at 10 p.m. with Matt and his younger brother Cole, then Jack wil take the stage. They are scheduled to perform until 1 a.m.

The $30 cost of admission includes a dinner and party favors. Just as at the StageStop, Jensen will serve black-eyed peas and corn bread at midnight, for good luck in the new year.

"I actually enlarged it so I could sell some more tickets because people are wanting in here. I'm getting calls from California," Jensen said. "I'm real excited about the new club. He (Jack Reeves) said it's the best sound system he's ever performed with. I really set it up professionally for him."